Football
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HANWOOD FC will be missing four key players on Sunday for their State Cup clash against Sutherland Shire side Gymea United.
Last year's beaten cup finalists will head to Sydney without Joey Schirripa, Andrew Quarisa, Daniel Quarisa and Anthony "Giggles" Agresta, who are all unavailable.
Coach Anthony Agresta said Hanwood is "buzzing" after a season-best performance against the Eastern Wanderers but admitted the absence of those names will sting.
"That's going to make it a little bit tricky but the guys we're taking I think are good enough to do the job," he said.
Hanwood smashed the Wanderers 5-1 at Hanwood Oval on Sunday, despite playing almost the entire second half with 10 men due to a red card to goalkeeper Adam Reid.
Agresta said he has not seen his side play better this year than it did against the Wagga side.
"You could just see our combinations starting to click together," he said. "Even once we went down to 10 men, we looked like the ones with the extra man.
"The boys really took it to them and just kept working hard.
"Hopefully we can kick on from there."
As is par for the course with State Cup games, Agresta said he was in the dark as to Sunday's opponents, Gymea.
But since they play in the same competition as Lilli Pilli - which beat Hanwood on penalties in last year's State Cup final - he anticipates a tough 90 minutes.
"The Shire's a pretty strong area so we're expecting a really tough game," he said.